Methods and Ethics During Filedwork 19

Ethnographic research with the members of Orfean Harmony took place in Thessaloniki,

during May, June, July, and August, in 20175_{. During that period, I gathered qualitative data}

through semi-structured audio-recorded interviews, video recordings, photos, and field-note taking through participant-observation in formal and informal conversations, meetings, and gatherings. I triangulated these methods including the use of technological equipment to capture sounds, performing behavior, and acts, taking into account their selective and partial nature. My

5 _{Prior to my research involvement with Orfean Harmony, I received IRB approval for the study (including the}

approval of the consent forms that I distributed to the participants), which defined as research period the dates between the 28th _{of April and 27}th _{of April 2018.}

sample was based on nineteen consent formswhich helped me to gain a holistic understanding in respect to how this musical ensemble came into being since 2007, how it continued to exist and function in 2017, and how the participants experienced their participation within Orfean

Harmony during the Greek economic crisis.

I interviewed eighteen participants including eleven instrumentalists6_{, three singers, and}

one actor (all members of Orfean Harmony), the sponsor of the ensemble as well as his/her assistant, and one of the specialized luthiers who repairs the string instruments of this group. The interview sessions ranged from approximately one to four hours each. I encouraged my

participants to choose the time and place of meeting. Accordingly, some interviews took place in various cafes in Thessaloniki, my house, the interviewee(s)’s house, and/or the office/working environment of the participants. During the interview sessions, I used an audio-recorder with the voluntary consent of each participant. Only one interviewee asked me to not audio-record our session. Therefore, I took only handwritten notes with his consent.

My interview data included: demographic information (such as age, gender, ethnicity, citizenship, social-class, religion, marital-status, employment, education, and residency), the participant’s feelings, attachment, and relationship with the performing arts, music, ancient Greece, ancient Greek music, texts, and/or instruments and the soundscapes associated with these, the participant’s personal experiences within Orfean Harmony’s environment (including music-making, feelings/emotions, social relations, financial challenges, and activities), and finally the experiences of the participants in relation to Greece’s financial crisis. In the end of each interview, I asked each participant to narrate any story related to Orfean Harmony’s environment in order to enhance my understanding of the participants’ feelings and experiences

associated with this ensemble. I also tried to grasp an idea on what constitutes ‘Greek identity’ for each of the participants, but I encountered guarded responses from some members, and I also witnessed intense emotions on this subject. After one of the rehearsals, two members of Orfean Harmony engaged in an intense discussion about what constitutes Greek identity. During this confrontation, one of them asked my personal opinion on this issue. As an anthropologist during fieldwork, I wanted to avoid influencing the views of my participants, and instead of answering directly to this question, I asked: “Could you help me define ‘Greek’?” The answers were fascinating as the members were trying to come up with a definition that would encompass their subjective and personal feelings. It is undeniable that all members of Orfean Harmony love and admire ancient Greek civilization, and they all show an interest and zeal to learn more about it and share this information with other people. It is also undeniable that all members of Orfean Harmony are inspired by the idea of recreating parts of an ancient musical past in general, and of recreating parts of an ancient Greek musical past in particular. However, the members’ personal views, opinions, and feelings about what constitutes a Greek identity, and how a modern-Greek identity may be connected with that of the ancient Greek identity differ—this is an example of how people’s subjective feelings and interpretations may vary depending on their personal backgrounds. Since I noticed that ‘Greek identity’ is a sensitive topic, I decided to allow my participants to speak about it only if they wished to, in order to avoid any discomforts—this is an example of respecting the participants.

What was interesting in the interviews and the formal/informal conversations was the way that the participants reflected on their experiences in relation to music and music-making. Some of them gave musical examples by humming, singing, playing an instrument, and moving

(“Now, how can I say that?”). This is an example of the “untalkable quality of music,” and its “firstness” dimensions—which refer to the power of music to produce emotional experiences to the human subject, which are difficult to articulate (Turino 1999:231-232, 249-250). The incidents described above revealed the experience of inspiration, leading the discussion to a place where the participants felt both excited and comfortable to perform the answer in front of the researcher. In fact, it is critical that the anthropologist lead the discussion in ways that inspire excitement and interest, in order to gain a better insight of the participants’ experiences,

behavior, and feelings (Wulff 2012:173). The excitement of my participants led the interview to a new level of rapport. Alternative communicative means, through music and body

performances, illuminate an additional path to the experiences of the interviewees, which is critical for understanding how they make sense of their artistic activities.

During my participant observation in rehearsals, performances, group meetings, and social gatherings, I was able to video-record, photograph, and/or keep field-notes on the group’s activities, and those affiliated with it. This ethnographic strategy helped to enrich my

understanding of how Orfean Harmony’s members and their affiliates function within everyday urban, social, music-making, and other performative settings. Beyond the rehearsal and concert frameworks (where most of the video-recording took place), these settings included two wedding celebrations, the ten-year anniversary celebration of the Orfean Harmony in the leader’s country house, café-food meetings, hanging out in the working environment of the participants, spending time with the family members of the participants in the context of Orfean Harmony’s gatherings,

and one funeral attendance7_{. In these settings, my field notes focused on formal and informal}

conversations, music, language, text, soundscapes, and material culture. While most of the

participants encouraged me to video-record and take photos of moments that they considered important, they also encouraged me when not to use my camera—such as in the funeral setting. Following their advice on when and how to use my technological equipment enhanced the establishment of trust between me, as a researcher, and the members of this ensemble, as the participants. Furthermore, I informed the participants every time that I intended to use the video camera in order to receive one more time their verbal consent. The information gathered from the settings listed above helped me to navigate various experiences, to document narratives, and to record information related to Orfean Harmony’s environment.

As an active member of Orfean Harmony since 2007, I play the ancient Greek instrument pektis. Accordingly, I participated in this ensemble by playing the pektis during rehearsals and the performance in the end of June 2017. At the same time, I was asked to participate as a singer in one of the musical pieces, since one of the singers could not perform with the ensemble. Beyond my music-oriented performing activities, I was also engaged in the setup of the room for the rehearsals, car-transportation for the members of the group when needed, participation in casual conversations, gatherings, and group-meetings, and the promotion of this group through

the use of the video-material recorded with my camera from the performance8_{. My involvement}

in the activities listed above, maximized my data collection as an insider participant-observer, which allowed me to grasp parts of the insider’s emic view.

My research also included the collection of cultural artifacts, such as musical programs, photos, and musical scores, that were given to me by the participants for using them in this

8  _{The members of Orfean Harmony used this audio-visual material to create a small video and asked me to give it to}

the Mayor of Pylaia-Panorama-Hortiati. The performance was part of the 3rd _{Festival of Musical Meetings 2017,}

organized by the municipality of Pylaia-Panorama-Hortiati, and hence, the mayor and the artistic director asked from me a small video-sample. This video is available on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBUAGROf6mQ.

research. At the same time, I collected information from musical videos available on YouTube to get a sense of Orfean Harmony’s past performances. Finally, I observed Thessaloniki’s urban environment and gathered photo material that demonstrates the city’s turbulent creative and civic environment including graffiti, demonstrations, strikes, and other city-elements—this

information was critical to understanding the urban context where my ethnography took place in summer 2017.

The above methods helped me to gather important information based on the participants’ personal and collective responses, the activities in which the members of Orfean Harmony were engaged in, and the conditions under which this musical ensemble functions as an artistic force within Thessaloniki’s turbulent environment. Furthermore, these methods generated a data collection that sheds light on the feedback-relationship between the human actors—such as the members of Orfean Harmony and those associated with the ensemble—and the non-human entities—such as the musical instruments, sounds (music, voice, language), and finances. This human-non-human relationship reveals Orfean Harmony’s creation and recreation since 2007, and gives insight on the sustainability of this ensemble. Finally, this material contributes to our understanding of how Orfean Harmony works as a network of performing artists that shapes temporal sonic-chronotopes that echoes on a distant past.

In the next section, I discuss the difficulties and opportunities related to being an insider/native anthropologist to illustrate my positionality as a researcher during fieldwork in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2017.